Page 1
Cyber-Deluxe Tips Guide
This document is a collection of tips and information from a few intranet forum sources.
For the most part, the information is from the Fender Forum/Modern amps/Fellowship of the
Cyber-Deluxe thread. This collection of tips is not intended to represent the only way to get
good sounds from this amplifier. This is an avenue to get information to users. If this
document helps you avoid or find a solution to a problem we have accomplished our goal. If
this document opens the doors for your imagination through someone’s technique, we are
successful.
These are individual’s thoughts from the Fender and other forums. Some of the
information is edited to correct spelling or sentence structure, often disregarded in the speed
of typing on a forum thread. In some cases, there were several people with similar input.
Here, I took the liberty to merge their thoughts. In the mixing down of everyone’s thoughts
into single ideas, it became difficult to distinguish between true quotes and paraphrased
material. Please assume all of this information is quoted from casual conversations. As you
read this guide, imagine sitting under a tree with a dozen or so people, all familiar with this
amplifier, discussing the things they have figured out. With this in mind, quotation marks are
omitted.
Also, I would like to thank all those contributing to the forum. Without their input this
material would not be available to edit into this guide.
What is a Cyber Amp?
Fender is very big on making it perfectly clear the Cyber series amplifiers are not
modeling amplifiers. Let’s see what they mean by this. Fender uses the term “modeling” to
mean sampling. For instance, Line 6 and Create have modeling amplifiers. When you turn
their amplifier selector to “Blackface” you have a digital sample for a Fender Twin, but the
tone controls and power amp may not act as they did on the original amplifier. Vox adds a
small twist to the definitions. Vox uses a digital pre-amp modeling (from Korg). The selected
amplifier’s pre-amp plus tone stack is very closely modeled then Vox uses a complicated,
tube/solid state combination power amp. The pre-amp is modeling and the power amp
changes to represent the desired amplifier.
The Cyber-Deluxe goes in a different direction. Most amplifiers are based on a half a
dozen different circuits commonly used. Fender studied five of these circuits. They looked at
how minor changes to resisters and capacitors make changes in the sound of the base circuit.
The “Amp-Type” selection knob on the Cyber-Deluxe lets you pick from the five basic
pre-amp circuits. Each of these five circuits has 3 or 4 different variations or modifications
based on common changes. When you choose the Blackface 1 position, you are not selecting
the Fender Twin amplifier. You are selecting the pre-amp circuit which the Twin, Tremolux
and several others were based on. With this circuit you have 3 or 4 different modifications to
chose from. Then you can adjust several other parameters making the sound of an amplifier
of your choice. This is technically not a modeling amplifier, because you are not modeling a
specific amplifier. You are emulating an amplifier by selecting a basic circuit and making
adjustments to sound very similar to the amplifier you wish to emulate.
For your convenience, Fender has made some these adjustments for you and saved them
in presets 16 through 31. These presets are emulations of various amplifiers. From here, you
can add reverb, effects and such to make something truly unique. Imagine, a Tremolux with
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 2
reverb or a Twin Reverb with chorus.
Software Versions
What firmware version do you have, 1.0 or 1.1? When you first power up the amplifier,
the version number will display in the data window.
CYBER-DELUXE SOFTWARE VERSION HISTORY:
Version 1.0 released November 2001 the original issue.
Version 1.1 released March 2002.
• Improved self-test procedures and MIDI error reporting.
• Improved parameter display functionality in menus.
• Improved DSP operating system thereby removing a rare system error when a specific
combination of effects is active. For the DSP bug, I retain: rare and on “one specific
combination.” I wouldn’t worry about this. Something like the tremolo with WAH, in advanced
mode and a certain combination of parameters. It's easier to win a billion in the lottery!
Software upgrade consists of replacing a soldered chip and must be done by an authorized
Fender technician. If you need to have this done, contact the dealer to get the upgrade to get
the job done by an authorized person.
First Tries
If you just sit down and try the Cyper-Deluxe or Twin, you won’t really see the true
potential for these amplifiers on the first attempt. Remember the order: Learn, Try and Buy,
not the reverse! Before trying, touching and especially, before buying this amplifier. I
recommend you read, re-read, and read again the manual. The manual is downloadable from
the Fender web site.
Learn what VTI (Virtual tone interpolation) is.
Learn well what a tube is and does.
Learn very well what is a solid state amplifier, how it works.
Learn what a Hybrid amplifier is.
Learn what pre-distortion and post-distortion is.
Learn what a pre-amp does.
Learn the tone stack concept.
Learn what a capacitor, a resistor, an analog pot are.
Learn what an analog to digital converter is.
Learn what the difference between analog and digital.
Learn what sampling and a modeling amplifier are.
Learn the differences between a Blackface, a Tweed, a Dynatouch amplifier.
Learn a bit about MIDI; download a demo of the Cakewalk midi software.
Learn what Channel, Program Change and System Exclusive messages are.
Yes, the key is learning. And as you see there is a lot to learn. If you do it before trying
this amplifier, you will appreciate it for sure! You will know exactly what you are buying and
why you bought it! Just like a new car.
After all this learning, take a coffee, or two! Then, go to the store and try it in a quiet
room. Then try a tube amplifier. Now try a SS amplifier. Try Fender, Marshall, Line6 and as
any as are possible. Now ask someone to play with the amplifier while you are listening. Then,
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 3
make up your mind, and finally go for it.
Beware, you won't say: “Hey it's just the same, it sound really like a 65 Deluxe reverb or a
Vox AC-30" according to the amp-type you select. The amp-type selection knob selects
different circuits, not different amplifiers. Selecting a circuit and adjusting gain, tone and
compression will give you the tone you’re looking for. Again, this amplifier doesn’t copy
specific amplifiers.
Please don't form your opinion by trying a couple of presets. Some of the presets, 00
through 15, have too much effects; too much reverb, too much delay, too much distortion,
too much of this and too much of that. If you spread a one inch coat of peanut butter on your
slice of bread, you won't taste the bread itself anymore! But, they do give you a good idea of
the wide variety of sounds the amplifier is capable of producing. Presets 16 through 32
emulate actual amplifiers.
After turning on the amplifier, push the little “Manual” button. It will switch amplifier, as
it says, to the manual mode. Doing so will disable the preset feature. Now, the knobs will
reflect the current setting of the amplifier. This is the only “what you see is what you get”
mode.
Keep your attention on the amp-type knob. Each step of a type brings you to a more
overdrive until you reach the next amp-type. So each type has a graduations from clean to
dirty as knob turns clockwise. You'll hear more and more noise and hiss as you turn the knob
because you’re going more gain. That is why there's a noise gate build in the Cyber-Deluxe.
Rather than working your way around the amp-type knob, do what I call the “Clean Test.”
For the Tweed, Blackface and Dyna-touch types, the first step is the clean tone. So try all
three of these clean tones first. The British and Modern types offers only over driven sounds.
Although, it is possible to make them cleaner using very lower gain settings.
Set the trim knob on 5 or 6 and set the Gain at 10. Tweak the others knobs and
experiment to taste. Notice the tone controls for each amp type work differently. Also notice
how responsive the amplifier is to changes to pickup selection and small changes in the
guitar’s controls.
Try the effects one a time. Then mix them. Ask for a set of headphones. This will remove
the affects of the room. Also, some of the effects are stereo. Prepare yourself for a big WOW!
Even with the mono settings. Take off the headphones. Ask for a mirror and take a look at the
great smile on your face!
Do this for each clean amp type (The mirror step is optional!). Continue with the second
step on the tweed, Blackface and Dyna-touch types. These have more bite. Before doing so,
lower the gain to 6. Remember, you set it on 10 on the clean types; witch is not necessarily
the best choice for over driven tones. Also, lower your guitar volume knob to avoid getting
feedback.
It may seem complicated and it really is. Imagine yourself with your guitar plug into an
“A/B/C/D/E/F/G/H/I/J/K/L/M/N//O/P” box to switch between 16 different amplifiers. Some
are set ultra clean and quiet, others are dirty and loud. Imagine, you can switch from a tiny
1949 Champ to a big 100w Marshall stack! Wow, you have to control the beast and your
guitar's volume knob! And believe me it's a real 65 watts. Better try it in a closed room at the
store!
Once you have sampled the clear amp types try the same thing with the more dirty types;
British and Modern. After this, if you want you can play with the presets.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 4
There is a lot more to discover with this amplifier, really a lot! In the first month I owned
mine, I needed to read the manual about 10 times. I needed to learn a lot more about MIDI,
to control the amplifier remotely with my computer running cakewalk, to master Cyber Foot
Controller, and more!
Before gig with it, you must do our homework. If not, we are likely to get mixed up in
front of our audience! This amplifier is a real playground. You go there every day, enjoying
playing different games.
Getting to Know the Cyber-Deluxe
There are two controls in need of consideration and understanding. One is the Trim knob
with its lights and the other is the peak light
Use of Trim
Think of the trim as the control over the amplifier input. It works just like the trim on a
mixing board. Whether your guitar has high power pickups or weak, old single coils, the trim
will cleanly boost or cut the input signal strength to the optimum level for the Cyber-Deluxe
pre-amp. The red and green lights are like a VU meter that is ideally to be 90% of the time in
the green but occasionally pegging into the red.
In order to make any sense of all this let's use a guitar with the volume and tone knobs
wide open (10s) with the switch on the bridge pickup and the amplifier in manual. Now, do a
drum-roll, alternate picking, rhythm for Tweed 1 turning up or down on the Trim until the
light stays in the green with only occasional reds. I find it helps to write down your results so
you can really learn about this amplifier. Continue repeating and doing this with each of the
amplifier settings right on around the dial. You could experiment on the “emulated amplifier”
presets #16-32.
Below are the trim values based on a Hot Rodded Fat Strat. Your actual numbers will vary
depending on your guitar, its pickups, and their selection. You should roll the Trim knob until
you see the green lights stay on almost continuously with only a flickering from red. You
should not just keep using the same value for all settings regardless of guitar and pickup
selection.
The Trim is important. Many users are setting the Trim at
8, 9 or 10 and find the amplifier doesn't sound right. Setting
the trim too high and the pre-amp will clip; an ugly, nasty
sound. Setting the trim too low, and you loose the subtle
sounds of your guitar. I suggest you make a checkup list like
mine for your own guitar to get to know your amplifier. Don’t
let us fool you, many of us posted our settings and noted the
Trim was nearly at max levels (8, 9, and 10). But as you can
see above, this is not necessarily so.
To destroy one last myth, increasing or reducing the
amplifier gain and the volume does not change the Trim
change. The corollary is also mostly true. The trim has no
direct effect on the volume and gain. However, you can
reduce the trim enough to reduce the signal strength and get
less breakup from the gain control. Also, you can max out the
My Trim SettingsTweed 1 = 3.5 +/-Tweed 2 = 4.5 +/-Tweed 3 = 4.5 +/-Blackface 1 = 6.0 +/-Blackface 2 = 5.0 +/-Blackface 3 = 4.5 +/-DynaTouch 1 = 6.0 +/-DynaTouch 2 = 5.0 +/-DynaTouch 3 = 4.5 +/-DynaTouch 4 = 4.5 +/-British 1 = 4.5 +/-British 2 = 4.5 +/-British 3 = 4.5 +/-Modern 1 = 4.5 +/-Modern 2 = 4.5 +/-Modern 3 = 4.5 +/-
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 5
trim and drive the first stages of the pre-amp into clipping, a dirty, fuzzy, not musical
distortion sound.
Peak Light
Now, a word about the “peak” light. It does not necessarily peak when you are at an
optimum for your Trim for any given setting. It tells you something about your Celestion
speaker and how its doing, regardless of your choice of amp-type. The peak light means you
are feeding too much power to the speaker. Watch out for this too. You can reduce gain or
master volume to keep the light from peak light from illuminating.
Hiss and Noises
Well on ours, there is absolutely no hiss at all when the amplifier is opened up (started)
without anything plugged. It opens as usual with the preset #00 selected which includes the
noise gate level set on 2. If I set the noise gate to “OF” on the display, then I get a very little
hiss. If I crank the master on 10, 9.9 on the display, it becomes a bit louder and finally if I
capture all the eq's knobs and set them on 10, I get more. Once again, it's not very loud. Now,
if I lower the master to about 5, I hear almost nothing. The amount of background noise or
hiss changes with the settings.
Now, what if I plug a guitar in, with the guitar volume set to 0, and do the same steps as
above. Result: I do hear more hiss but nothing very loud until I select the Dyna-Touch4 or
Modern1 amp types. Now I get some louder hiss. I never really notice it because I don't really
use those amp types. Also, when I start my Cyber-Deluxe, I push immediately on the manual
mode button. It becomes a habit.
If there is more noise, investigate. If the background noise doesn’t change with the
volume, master volume or amplifier setting, it isn’t background noise: it is a problem. The
amplifier with nothing plugged should be quiet. Plug in your chord without a guitar. Any
additional noise is from the chord. Then plug in the guitar. Single coils will pick up all AC
powered devices, so move around your room and change your angle to the amplifier until you
find a quiet place.
If there is noise when nothing is plugged in, try different amplifier settings. If the
noise/hiss reduces as the selector knob is turned counter-clockwise (anti-clockwise) to the
lower gain variants of the same amp-type, and silent on the first setting, it is normal.
If the sound doesn’t change or is louder than a light white noise, there is a problem.
There have been problems with Cyber amplifiers from Fender. They will take the amplifier
back for replacement or repair within the 5 year warrantee period.
I was getting horrendous noise. It was actually drowning out the signal. I could actually
turn Master Volume to 10 and gain to zero and instead of having silence I could hear noise
though the speaker with every note I picked. And this was noise only, with no guitar signal!
I thought it might be in the software of the Cyber-Deluxe. I decided to turn all knobs to
zero and found the problem. It is the volume knob! By rolling the volume back to zero and
then returning it to normal operation values, it somehow broke the lock of the noise circuitry.
My amplifier is back to 100% perfect. I can now play the Modern amp types without undue
noise beyond the high-gain you can tame with noise gate.
Solution: I first thought the GAIN was the problem but still got noise with GAIN at zero. I
next tried taking the Reverb, MOD F/X, and DELAY out of the picture by setting them to zero.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 6
Then I took out the tone controls by setting them to zero. Not one of these measures had any
effect on the noise coming from my speaker.
Ultimate solution: The final knob to turn was the VOLUME knob. As soon as I turned it
down the noise disappeared. I turned it to zero and then back up again. I set the amp type to
Modern 3 and the gain all the way back to 10 while I slowly raised the Volume and there was
no noise!
Theory: My guess is the software had locked into the Volume circuit and created a
feedback loop within itself. Turning the Volume knob allowed me to “capture” the circuit
again and reset it back to normal values. I had not moved the Volume knob from 10 for a long
time, and also used MIDI/Cakewalk to modify patches. I figure something in the chain of
events caused the problem. Luckily, I solved it before sending it off to a repair shop. I hope
this helps someone else and prevents the panic which was setting in on me before I found the
solution.
The amplifier’s tone sounds great one day and bad the next. It's absolutely a normal
behavior. All recording engineers experience this phenomena. I think this relies on three
major factors: first, the ear get accustomed to the sounds and when it is “tired” does not
discriminate them any more. Second, tone comes, in most part, from the fingers playing. The
more you play the more you sound good, until you're tired, then you sound bad. Thus, you
must set your patch when your playing is at its peak! Third, no musical instrument, acoustic or
electric sounds the same when it's played, alone, with others instruments and in different
environments. The great sounding patch on the headset will not sound the same through the
speaker. The room colors the sound. Other players joining in will also color the sound.
Finding Your Sound
Understand the trim and peak indicators, why not make some settings of your own
tailored presets for each one of those amplifier emulations? Start with your guitar settings full
up. Try each of the amplifier emulations, presets 16 through 32. Turn down the three effects.
Make small adjustments to the tone controls to get an amplifier with the voice you desire.
Then add the effects backing to find your signature voice. Don’t forget the compression and
noise-gate buttons.
I saved all 16 adjusted emulations after they are customized to my liking. I use each as
quick starting points, from which I make further adjustments while designing settings. This is
probably the easiest way to customize this amplifier to your style.
Remember this amplifier is very responsive to the input. When you change guitars or
pickups, you will have a very different sound. If you play more than one guitar, you may want
to pick out three or four sounds for each. Or, save a couple of preset sounds for each pickup
selection.
Preset Knowledge
How do I know what amp-type is playing? If you hold the “Exit” button, and turn the
“amp-type” knob, the corresponding led will light up once you reach the currently selected
type. And the same goes for effect type knobs!
When I first got my Cyber-Deluxe, I was very worried when I first played the presets. Way
too gimmicky on most if you ask me. But, these are good illustrations of the capabilities of
the amplifier and great starting points for you to begin your own adventures.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 7
Here are a few things to keep in mind while getting adjusted to so many buttons. Resist
the urge to do too much too soon. Concentrate on simple amplifier settings in the manual
mode or the amplifier emulations, presets 16 through 32. In the manual mode, start with
Tweed 1 with a little spring reverb and no other effects. NOT Dual Recto with the Gain
dimmed compression on 3, heavy delay, and a touch of Phasing! That will come later. Work
with gain, volume, treble, middle, bass and master. You'll be amazed at how deep and
wonderful the clean sounds are.
Trim, trim, trim. This is the most important knob on the Cyber-Deluxe. This control
makes a huge difference even if you nudge it. I have a Tele, a Strat, and an Epiphone
Sheraton. Everyone uses a different trim setting. Even the same guitar can have different trim
settings depending on pickup selection! The bridge PU on the Tele is really hot and I usually
have trim at about 4-5. The neck PU sounds best with trim around 8. Get used to working this
knob a lot.
When the pre-amp has a full strength signal to work with, the amplifier will sound great.
If the signal is too weak, the subtle overtones in your sound are lost. If the signal is too
strong, it will have an ugly clipping sound.
When you dial in a tone you like, save it. You have the presets, you might as well use
them. After you save a great tone, learn how to tweak it and save it again preferably on the
next preset slot. That way you can toggle back and forth between presets and decide if you
made it better or worse.
A good place to start is with the emulated amplifier presets: 16 through 32. Adjust each
of the presets. Store the “tweaked” amplifiers. Now you have really good amplifiers, tailored
for your guitar.
Compression: Also note, since I set the compression level on 4, the picking must be light.
Setting compression to 4 with a totaly clean amp type like the tweed 1 gives me a very soft
overdrive, very sensitive to the pick attack. Also it boosts harmonics and gives a sort of
“jump” to the chords when they are sustained. The noise gate is your friend, especially if
you’re going to use compression.
You should teach yourself as soon as possible make and enter settings. This really speeds
up the learning curve to do this. Use both the manual mode and the advanced start to
develop your sounds. To help with this, I recommend you make copies of all the tables in the
manual, cut them out and post them in a handy place so you won't have to leaf through the
pages to refer to things.
The preset chart and all the other charts are copied and hanging on the wall above my
amplifier. I refer to them constantly.
You will see there are emulation presets for every amp-type except Tweed 1 on #16-31.
Historically, the earliest amplifier modeled is the ‘49 Champ. You can see Fender begins with
Tweed 3 and the 1955, which comes later is a Tweed 2. I think the Tweed 1 is a simple clean
circuit for Tweed amps in general as both Tweed 3 (‘49 Champ) and Tweed 2 (‘55 Tweed
Deluxe) are dirty sounding. Therefore, I think of the Tweed 1 is merely any pre-distortion
Tweed circuit but not identified by a specific amplifier model. Interesting.
If you save those acquired amplifier settings say as #48-63, you will have an amplifier for
each one of the amplifier settings adjusted to run at an optimum tone for your equipment. It
won't be very likable but you can now reduce your Gain to Volume ratios and your Treble-Mid-
Bass ratios to suit. I did this in this fashion so you can handle a maximum amount of Gain for
when distortion is desired.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 8
Instead of building presets for each drive level, you can use the settings on your guitar.
Rolling off the Volume will roll off the overall distortion to clean up the sound. This works
great for lead to rhythm changes. Rolling off the tone will take you right down to some pretty
sweet warm or dark tones like you might enjoy for Jazz. This will avoid the small delay as the
patch changes. You can adjust your Master to suit your venue and you can go pretty far, too.
This is great technique for live playing. If you are recording, don’t forget, changing the
guitar volume changes the trim setting. Using an expression petal to control gain is another
method for both live and recording.
I think the more we add effects, more the signal seems less strong. I think it's a normal
behavior. And, this is particularly true with the stereo Vibratone, maybe because the signal
needs more processing and thus might be weakened a bit. The Vibratone and a few of the
other processing intensive effects seam to lower the volume.
You have to put in the time and experiment. One sitting doesn’t mean a thing. Even a
bunch of sittings may not. But once you start to get the hang of it, it really gets fun, and
familiar.
I am also using the Cyber-Twin but I’m finding out, to get a sound, there are a number of
variables coming into play. From the volume on the guitar to the settings on the amplifier
everything effects the sound. Yes, I agree, the volume should be set at around 3.5 to 4 on the
master volume and then turned down on the guitar. The amplifier starts to open up at this
point on the mater volume. The tone really blossoms.
I went in, today as a mater of fact, and brought up the Bassman setting. I started playing
with the knobs. When I got to a point I wanted to be at, I started turning up the volume and
discovered by setting the volume at 10, or wide open on the guitar, then bringing the
amplifier's master up to just under 4 and then turning the volume knob down on the guitar to
an acceptable level I got the fullness I wanted.
The bottom line is: the sound is there, within the amplifier but man you really have to
play around with it sometimes. What I am learning also is what sounds good for one guitar
doesn't mean it will sound good for the another. This is particularly going from single coils to
humbuckers, even the switching between pick-up positions can have a big effect on the sound
as well. The amplifier can produce some really great tones. You just may have to work a bit
to get them. When you, do watch out. They're really very good.
I try to set my patches so they sound good with any guitar I have. It takes some tweaking,
but it can be done. Of course I don't use my single coil Strat for real hard stuff anyway and
wouldn't use my B C Rich, Jackson, or HM Strat for my twangy settings either. But for my
standard rock patches all my guitars sound equally good albeit different, depending on the
guitar. That's why I like this amplifier. Something for everything in one compact package.
I would recommend everyone with these Cyber amplifiers perform a series of tests.
1. As I mentioned above, learn the maximum trim settings for each amp type or
combination and for each pickup.
2. Try making and designing settings with the guitar volume (10). This is really handy to
be able to run from dirty (10) to clean (5) so you don't have to step over to your
amplifier or use a foot pedal.
3. Try the amplifier in various ways while running the tone wide open (10) on the guitar.
Any reduction on the guitar is limiting the full tone going to the amplifier. There's a
good discussion on Tuck Andress' web site about this.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 9
4. Try running the amplifier with the Master at 10, the Gain and Volume off, and then
coming back on with the Gain and Volume to see where the tone characteristics are
maximized or sound the best.
5. Users of the Cyber-Deluxe should all know how to use the advanced edit settings for
each of the effects knobs, using the 3-fingered start-up (not a feature on the Cyber-
Twin).
The first four of these are dependant on the trim being properly set. With this kind of
background you get pretty good and confident at designing your own settings and emulating
the tone of others.
I prefer the greater control and options available with these amplifiers. Like Greg Koch
says it would take a truck full of gear to get the equivalent of all these amplifiers and their
effects!
Bonus: See the link for a Freeware utility to record and send Midi SysEx messages, among
other midi tasks. Using this tool you can just copy and paste the SysEx dump above in a midi-
ox window and send it to the Cyber-Deluxe using its utility features. Lot of fun and a very
precise way to record exact parameters settings.
This amplifier is very responsive to the instrument. It acts and sounds very different with
each guitar. That being said, some of the presets and your patches will sound great with one
guitar and pickup, medium with another and not so good with others. When the designers
built the presets, they must have been colored be the guitar they used at the time. I guess
this drives us back to the idea of making your own adjustments to the presets and saving them
for your use.
Effects Pedals
Controllers
There are two foot controllers commonly used with this amplifier. The Fender Cyber Foot
Controller is absolutely plug and play with the Fender Cyber series. It's a very heavy duty
device. The Behringer FCB1010 seems lighter and needs a bit of programming. To me, this is
an advantage! For others it's a nightmare. All depends. If you are really a plug and play guy, I
mean, if to program your home video or TV remote control is painful and boring, go for the
Fender device. You won't regret the extra cost.
The Cyber Foot Controller looks great, I like the way it’s built, but also it seems like it's
much more useful with a Cyber-Twin. I mean, it does what it does, and is fine for somebody
fresh out of the box. But there’s no way to program it in any manner. For one thing, the
Cyber-Deluxe doesn’t have midi mapper, like Cyber-Twin. Another thing, if you use it with
Cyber-Deluxe you can’t use an external expression pedal at the same time: it will do the same
thing the CC pedal on the Cyber Foot Controller does.
Given one of the pedals is always assigned to Master Volume it doesn't leave you with
much real-time control options. This is the main reason I wanted to get the FCB1010. I can set
up the expression pedals to do whatever I want, and still have the Ernie Ball passive volume
setup as an expression pedal to do something else.
There is a yahoo group about the Cyber-Deluxe and the Cyber-Twin amplifiers where you
can find a lot of information about the FCB1010 in the FILES area. You must sign-up to enter
but it’s free and no one sells anything there.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 10
It does take some tweaking, it’s not a “plug and play” solution, but I’m pretty familiar
with midi so it doesn’t bother me. You can program any button to do whatever you want: tap
tempo, tuner, fx bypass, etc.
I have a Behringer FCB1010 board and it’s really a game to put them together just change
the CC value on the Cyber-Deluxe and your going, one expression pedal is running as master
volume, and the other you can use for what you want. I have one bank set up, the first 5
presets are calling program 32-39 where I keep my rhythm presets and the next from 5-10 are
for preset 40- 49 where I keep my lead presets. There are 89 positions on the board.
Here's a Nugget you may find interesting. I have successfully programmed my Boss GT-6 to
control my Cyber-Deluxe through the MIDI. It works in a similar way to how the Cyber Foot
Controller is advertised to operate. With minimal programming, I can now switch the Cyber-
Deluxe from 00-64 using the foot controller of the GT-6, and use its volume pedal. Also, by
connecting one cable from the Effects Loop Send connection to the Input of the GT-6, I make
use of its tuner. I intentionally do not connect the output of the GT-6 to the Return. It was
pretty easy; all I had to do was read the directions! Imagine that! I am so pleased I could still
make use of my GT-6, as I thought it may become a wall decoration.
If anybody’s interested, I found an interesting feature allowing one to use the volume
pedal on the Foot Controller to do other things. From what I see in the Cyber-Deluxe manual,
every controllable function has its own CC assigned, so that should definitely work.
Midi Solutions, has a bunch of other interesting tools, too. The Pedal Controller, for
example, would allow you to connect another expression pedal, and program it to send any
message you want, thus allowing you even more “hands-free” control over your Cyber-Deluxe.
I’m not associated with the company in any way, just thought their stuff could be useful for
some of us, Cyber-Deluxers.
External Effects
On a slightly different tack, some of the fellowship have tried stomp boxes in front of the
Cyber-Deluxe. They seem to work fine, just adjust the trim accordingly. A Wah pedal in front
of the amplifier is great. Distortion pedals work fine too; however, with some tinkering, you
can get better sounds from the amplifier without the pedal.
If you really want to use your old boxes with this amplifier, use a clean setting to hear
you effects box. Also, overdrive boxes are designed to push a tube amplifier to the edge of
distortion. The trim circuit will defeat this purpose. Fuzz is different. It adds a sound by
making the analog waves square. It sounds fine in front of the amplifier. Again, wah, fuzz and
compression work great in front of the amplifier.
Expression Pedals
Any passive volume pedal should work. The Cyber-Deluxe and Cyber-Twin are looking for
a 10k ohm resistor at the heel down position (quiet) and a 250k ohm resister at the toe down
(loud). Some proportional kind of resistance in between. If you have a geek/nerd buddy that
owns a volt-ohm meter have him check out.
It occurs to me, if the input jack on the pedal was shorted, you would get the behavior
some members are reporting. Loud in the middle, quiet at both ends. And you know the
Dunlop guys might have done just that. So, when you pull the guitar cord plug from the pedal
the amplifier would not pick up any stray signals and be quiet. To defeat this, plug a spear
1/4 inch jack into the “to instrument” hole. Then the pedal will work fine.
When you switch to a patch and want to use an expression pedal, it takes at least two full
sweeps before anything happens. During the first full sweep the amplifier is calibrating to the
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 11
pedal. The second sweep is needed to capture the current value. Then the pedal is active.
Switching patches between songs is not a big deal, but switching patches in the middle of a
song could be a nightmare if you aren’t prepared.
One more thing. Many passive volume pedals are logarithmic taper. This means there is
very little change over most of the pedal sweep and almost all the change over the small
portion of the sweep remaining. When used for volume or gain, the pedal will sound linear. If
you use a log taper pedal to control tremolo rate or wah, it will be very strange.
Converting Twin Patches
First up, I have my Cyber-Twin sitting right next to the Cyber-Deluxe, and am using an
A/B box to easily switch between the two. I have been using my Lone Star Strat set to the
Bridge H/B pickup. I started off by switching off Reverb and Effects, just so I could assess the
basic tonal equivalence. Right up front I have observed a BIG problem. While the basic
controls: Gain, Volume, Treble, Middle, Bass, Presence (Cyber-Twin only) seem to give a
pretty close match for tone. That's the good news. The Cyber-Twin has a “Timbre” setting,
and this was in use on the SD Marshall Preset. This is like a “Global EQ” preset response
curve. The “Timbre” seems to be a kind of post amplifier EQ curve. It does an overall
modification to the general tone. I believe the Fender designers intended it to be used for
compensating for different room acoustics so you could boost the Bass perhaps, or enhance
the Mids. Like I said, when I build my own presets, I don’t usually set the Timbre because I
don’t feel it necessary other than for compensation. This leads me to believe it is possible to
build some kind of table of values allowing some offsets to be added to the Cyber-Deluxe EQ
controls to emulate the Timbre. It will just take time to work out the values.
Making your own patches
To enable the Advanced Edit Mode: Turn the amplifier OFF. Press and hold the three EDIT
buttons {reverb, Mod. /FX and Delay}, then turn the amplifier ON. Release the EDIT buttons
after the display lights up. Now each of the EDIT buttons will incrementally access 4
parameters. To disable the Advanced Edit Mode: Turn the Cyber-Deluxe amplifier OFF and ON
again.
To save: first, press SAVE once and the display will flash a writable preset location. Then
select any writable preset location (32 to 63) using the DATA WHEEL. Now, press SAVE again
and the preexisting contents of the displayed preset location will be overwritten with the
current amplifier configuration. If a different preset is selected before the current
configuration is saved, any active changes are lost.
To match other peoples tone, to emulate someone else’s sound, it would be logical to her
both the Cyber-Deluxe and the artist’s tone at the same time. Try this technique. You will
need a Cyber-Deluxe amplifier with a set of very small headphones. They need to be “open”
headphones that allow sound from outside to come in while listening. I use the little jogging
headsets that go around the back of the head. The sponge padding allows external sounds,
fine. You will also need a larger set of headphones to go over the Cyber-Deluxe headphones
from your amplifier to hear the recording.
I like to work this with my guitar Volume and Tone pots at 10. Keep the Trim maximized
to see the red light come on only occasionally. With a recording playing at a comfortable
level, make all your settings.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 12
First, set the master volume as needed to use the headphones. You should hear the
Cyber-Deluxe amplifier at the same volume as the recording. Start with the amp-type
selections. Pick an amp-type you think will be close. If you know something about the persons
gear, you can get a head start. Be careful, most bands record with one set of equipment and
perform live with another. Keep all Reverb, Mod. F/X, Delay etc. off. Maximize the volume
with the amount of gain to get close to the sound on the recording.
Now, proceed to the Tone knobs on the amplifier. I prefer to set the bass first with the
treble and mids off. Don't OD on the 6th string bass tone, but get the bass close. Then I roll up
to attain the mids paying attention to the 1st string tone. Lastly, work the treble to match
the recordings high overtones. I work this last because I have the tone controls on the guitar
at maximum treble to begin with.
You are doing this all the while you are listening through the outer headphones to your
recording while you try to match the tones in the inner headphones with your amplifier. If you
have matched the tone pretty accurately, the biggest part of the settings is done.
Now before you go on this is the time to make sure there is no other Amp setting would
make this better. If you think another amp sounds better return to the tone adjustments one
more time.
Now, decide whether or not to go with Compression and what degree. Then, you are
ready to bring in the different types of effects with Reverb, Mod. F/X, and Delay. The noise
gate is very transparent. It can be added later and will not change the sound.
When you remove the headphones you will be pleasantly surprised at the clarity you have
achieved when you listen to the amplifier. Only a little tweaking will be required to adjust
from going from the headsets to the Celestion speaker. You can take the Master up without
hurting your ears and enjoy some good tones.
I'm going to let you design a Brian May tone. Here is some info that may help. Go to his
web site or some other equipment site to see what an artist plays. Click on “Brian's Guitars
and Amps” and it helps to read “Pickup switching explained” before you get started.
Turn your amplifier on, using the 3-button, 3-fingered, Advanced Edit startup.
With the info they give, I see he uses Voxes on stage and an amplifier I don’t think you’ll
match in the studio. Going for the Voxes, I would switch to my British 1, 2, and 3 to begin and
with varying Compression from Off to 4. I would try to match the tonal quality first, using
various pickups and combinations of pickups. You’ll see Brian has far more pickup selections
than most of us and he can change the phasing for each. You will have to do the best you can
with what you've got. Once you have selected amp-type and compression, and have matched
it with one of your pickup selections, you are ready to design your settings.
I strongly recommend you adjust your trim, now, to optimize your output. Leave trim
alone after that. Maximize the Gain to Volume, next. Then adjust the amplifier’s tone
controls to suit while listening to Queen preferably. Lastly, and this can take the longest
time, experiment with effects. They said, Brian May like a smidgen of Chorus to brighten his
tones, this may apply for you.
Oh, one more note: The defaults are different depending on what setting you start. It
would be nice to know where you are before using reverb, Mod f/x and delay. This can make a
very big difference in sound. For example if you start at #13 when you start to design a tone,
you will get profoundly different delay defaults for feedback (fb) compared to setting #14 or
using the three fingered start.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 13
For example, if you’re looking for a Hendrix like tone, you can start from scratch by using
the Advanced Edit Mode, a cyber blank, and then going to British 1 and working it up from
there. Hendrix used a Marshall Amp (British 1) that was basically a Fender Tweed Bassman
Amplifier with a twist on the circuitry for European tubes and power.
You could speed things up some by using the preset amplifies emulations. Turn your
Cyber-Deluxe dial to Amp #17. This is the circuitry for the Bassman Amp. All of the effects are
now tweaked for the Bassman amp. Now, turn the Amp-Type Selector knob to British 1. This is
the same as the Fender Bassman but with the Marshall variation on the circuitry. Now, roll the
Gain to capture control and turn it back down to clean it up a little trying to match the
degree of distortion on Hey, Joe for either the chords (rhythm) or the lead portions. You will
probably sound just a bit more like Hendrix if you put Compression at 1. Almost all studio
recording are compressed. Effects are at 0 with each of the 3 knobs at zero, so you may want
to experiment now with Reverb, F/X and/or Delay to make a finer match, but I bet you won't
need much of those if at all. When you get something you like post it on the forum in the
formats we've all been using on the Cyber-Deluxe thread for patches. Hope that helps!
One more thing, don't forget to write down and save your settings on the amp #32-63. At
least write down the setting #, the amp-type, the reverb-type, the Mod F/X type, and the
Delay Type as these don’t show on the window and can be easily forgotten.
Finding the right balance with gain vs volume is not always easy indeed. What I notice is
this: let say we’re using the tweed1 amp-type: “high gain - low volume” sounds harsh and
fizzy. High volume and gain to about 4 or 5, max, is much more “tube like” to me. But often
we forget to tweak the master correctly. Too low, the amplifier sound good but, thinner, and
it's normal. To me, the Cyber-Deluxe begins to be “human” with the master set to at least 7
or 8, even with direct recording.
Here are some general guidelines from “Strat Pat”:
1. Generally, I don't start a patch using a factory preset. Instead, I use the amplifier in
the advanced edit or manual mode and, select an amp type and start tweaking. This
way, you have a raw, “blank” document; let’s call it a “blank cyber”.
2. To design a tone, I use the headphones to get all the harmonics directly in my ears.
Through the headset, the sound is not modified by the environment you are in like
bedroom, lounge, garage etc. All my gear stuff is in my kitchen, believe it or not!
3. Then I add just a bit of effects. I found the ambient 2 reverb has a great influence on
the tone. It seams to give the sound more room and bottom.
4. The slow rotary Vibratone setting is also an effect I like a lot. In combination with
ambient 2 reverb, it’s a killer tone. This combination of light reverb and either delay
or Vibratone adds warmth to the tone of all amp-types.
5. And when needed, I push the output of the pickup's by using the compression, mostly
at level one.
6. Since all tones I build are starting with a “cyber blank,” all the effects parameters are
set to default. And when I use an effect, most of the time, I’m using it with the
default parameters settings, tweaking only the level knob which control the default
selected parameter.
My guitar, often called “Hot-Rodded” is indeed so. When applying your settings, I find the
10 Gain to be way to much, for the “Hot-Rodded” American Fat Strat Texas Special I use. I
can't get the clean chords Bm-Em etc that you do until I come down to about 3.0 on the gain.
For the lead bridge it helps for me to kick it up to 4-6 maximum for a cutting distortion to
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 14
really come through. Your use of the 3 pickup switches is good, here. On my guitar, I find
myself wanting to stick to the neck pickup and foot switching to higher Gain settings. It
doesn’t sound right on my middle or bridge (humbucker). Running the guitar volume down to
5 for chords and swinging up to the full volume for lead works well also.
I have noticed this a lot with my guitar. For example, if I put on the Vintage Stack (British
Amp 2) preset, #27, where the gain is at 8.0, with my guitar I have always had to run this
down quite a ways. With the Modern Stack (British Amp 3) preset, #28, where the Gain is at
9.7, I can’t run much more than about 4.0 for maximum distortions like in a Joe Walsh “Funk
#49.” This has been a nice learning experience for me. Anyone using my presets posted should
probably come up on the Gain quite a bit to get better matches from my settings with other
guitars. Very interesting.
If you look back at many of my patches, you will see I favor the Vibratone low and slow. I
used to use up to 2.9 but now I favor 1.0-1.3 unless you really want the Hammond/Leslie
sound. I discovered some time ago, just a little bit gives settings more of a tube-amp tone to
my ears.
Also, when no delay is really required, I find with the delay time (dt) at 1.0 you can roll
the Level up to give it just a little presence or dimension.
Everyone should try all 3 Effects knobs (Reverb, Mod F/X, and Delay) this way -- at
various levels (some quite high as in my Jeff Beck tone) with their respective Time (ti), Rate
(rt), and Delay Time (dt) set at nearly nothing. In order to discover the little extra edge the
amplifier can get without really bringing in each of the effects.
You know, I often use tweed1 with compression on 3 or 4 to make it dirtiest and it works
very well. Also, I often lower the volume pot to 6-7 on my Strat. Thus, I can switch really fast
from a clean to a dirty tweed1 just by a quick volume turn up. Very effective and powerful!
Regarding patches, they are not the be-all or end-all one might hope for, because of the
different performances we will all experience with different guitars and different pickups.
They can get you in the ballpark quickly. Expect any patch to require tweaking to suit the
user.
Using effects
Saw the demo done by Gary Hoey when he was on tour for Fender. He put on a great one-
man show using the Cyber-Deluxe for all numbers except one which was done on the Cyber-
Twin. He used a separate Wah Pedal, a separate Tube Screamer, Ibanez I believe, and the
Fender Controllers. I know I have to break down and get the same, soon. I’d hang on to the
Tube Screamer, if I was you. The two foot pedals on the Fender controller are ideal for
carrying two-at-once effects (your choice and combinations from the many options on your
Cyber-Deluxe.
First preset 21 uses Blackface-3, this circuit is already very over driven. Also the master is
at 4.2, the volume on 7.3 and even compression on 1. Wow! it’s a lot. Putting a pedal in front
this setting maybe is not a good idea!
Would you put pedal in front a, let say, a Hot Rod on the drive, or more drive, channel?
Or a pedal in front of the clean channel cranked all the way up?
Maybe that's why your SD-1 doesn’t works well with preset 21. Forget the preset and
jump in manual mode! How’s that SD-1 is doing with a clean circuitry like tweed-1 and
Blackface-1? Try tweed-1/no-reverb/no-F/X/No-delay. Here you can put the gain and volume
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 15
on 10 without generating any preamp or power amp overdrive. If you found a something
sounding good to you, now you know why! Setup the Cyber-Deluxe and your pedal and gig
volume too.
I play by ear most things. I have over a thousand CDs and put them on to play to.
Something keeps improving me. I’ve never had lessons. When I was young, I was in a 60s group
and did have songs for the band. My Strat was stolen before I turned 21 and I gave up playing
for 30 years. I was a real sorehead about that Strat. I collect guitar music in every genre.
Lately, I enjoy putting on some rather tame new age CDs and then playing Jeff Beck-like over
it. I play finger-style, no fingernails, like Tuck Andress. I especially like the British 2 and 3
amps also. I have a humbucker at the bridge and enjoy the 4 setting which sweetens the
bridge with the middle Seymour Duncan single coil. I like 1 and 3 compression but use 4 for
sustain and whine, I run the gain down to almost clean -- not quite -- so chords still sound
good, but there is still a bit of crunch and squeal. I enjoy pinch harmonics when using the
trem-bar a-la-beck. I also like Gary Hoey and must get some more of his stuff.
I actually quite like both the Wah and the Chorus on the Cyber-Deluxe. The Chorus is
pretty flexible and gives lots of scope, particularly when you start up the Cyber-Deluxe with
the “Advanced Edit” enabled.
The Wah is also very good, but you probably need to exercise care in your choice of an
expression pedal. Many different pedals may be use for expression/volume purposes, but they
just don't physically “feel” right in the context of being used for Wah. Also, If you use an
audio taper passive volume pedal for Wah, the frequency sweep will be over a very narrow
range at the end of the pedal movement.
When I want to reduce the effect of the compressor I drop the guitar volume to about 7
and set the master higher. That's the only way to tweak the compressor behavior, I think.
Indeed, the compression adds a little clean “punch & crunch” to the attack. Delicious!!!
I use to use the NG with heavy distortion tones mostly when using the dirtiest Dynatouch
and modern amp types. When I toggle it ON/OFF using your patch, I feel like it contributes to
darken the tone I would say.
I know many Cyber-Deluxe users avoid using delay and tremolo together. They tend to
beat against each other when out of phase. There's a little trick to it, maybe you would find
handy. Tremolo and tape delay are nice together for Duane Eddy, the Ventures, the Grateful
Dead, Chet Atkins, B.B. King, Mark Knopfler and Gary Hoey to name a few. First set up your
tape delay time (dt) by tapping to the beat on time, half-time or double-time too. Then read
what your dt is. Next just set up your tremolo selection rate (rt) so it is a multiple of the
delay time. For example, if the delay time is 3.2 try a 6.4 or 9.6 rate on your tremolo.
The values goes from 03 to 9.9 and then from 10 to 14. The manual specifies these values
represent a range beginning from 30 ms to 1450 ms.
According to the table, if you want a delay near 360 ms, you should set the delay time
parameter to 3.6.
On the Tape Delay, if you tap the Rate (rt) at 4 beats to the bar, you'll get 2.3. If you
follow just the backbeat you'll get 4.6. I always use the tap to determine the best delay rates
for the beat.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 16
The tap button can key you into your
Mod/FX rates and Reverb rates as well; the first
edit on each button. Very helpful, and it helps
to keep these things in phase with each other.
You can use halves, wholes, or multiples for
each depending on the sound you are
emulating.
I sat right in front of Gary Hoey and noticed
how he reset by tapping for each backing track
he played to - right to the drum beats as I
described. Well, that’s when the lights really
came on. I reasoned that all these rates, like
waves, could be in or out of phase and in-phase
is most harmonious. Therefore the tap can
signal quarter-notes, half-notes, or whole notes
and therefore beats. Same with reverb times
(ti) and Mod F/X rates (rt).
Now more than ever, guitarists are familiar
with the term “tap-tempo,” in large part
because these days, the handy function comes
standard on just about every processor on the
market. But how many guitarists are really
aware of all the cool ways in which this tiny
button can be used to create giant riffs and
textures? Its worth learning some of these approaches, because in this digital age, you’re not
only expected to be able to play your guitar, you’re often expected to be able to “play” your
effects.
If you’ve experimented at all with a tap-tempo button you probably know if you press it -
that is, tap it - a few times in a row at a given tempo, it will set the rate of a given effect to
match the tempo. This is particularly useful for getting digital delays to generate echoes
repeating in time with the groove of the song you are playing. This is a standard studio
strategy for making guitar parts sound massive and spacious without cluttering up the groove
with clumsy echoes landing everywhere except on the downbeats. In a typical setup, tap
tempo allows you to tap quarter notes into your delay unit. You may have to tap as many as
four depending on the unit. I believe you only have to tap a couple of times for the Cyber
amplifiers to take it, though I do more to get a steady beat so the echoes all fall on quarter-
notes at the same tempo. More advanced processors, like the Cyber-amplifiers, will allow you
to set the echoes to repeat at different subdivisions, not just on the quarter notes. Yes! This
is where the real fun begins, because the flexibility allows you to use digital delay as a means
to repeat notes in such a way they literally become part of your riff.
The most common subdivision used in advanced tap-tempo approaches is the dotted
eighth-note, which allow you to generate spectacular textures in the same feel as David
Gilmour’s echo laden riffs, on Pink Floyd's “Another Brick in the Wall, Pt. 1,” The Edge's
hypnotic ricochets on “With or Without You,” and “I Still Haven't Found What I'm Looking
For,” and Eddie Van Halen's bouncy volume swells on “Cathedral” These riffs are famous
CDDisplay
MSEquivalent
SecondsEquivalent
03 30 ms
04 40 ms
1.0 100 ms 1/10
1.1 110 ms
5.0 500 ms 1/2
10 1000 ms 1
11 1100 ms 1.1
12 1200 ms 1.2
13 1300 ms 1.3
14 1400 ms 1.4
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 17
around the world, but without the perfectly timed echoes they employ, they’d be impossible
to play.
And what about a delay time of 6? 6 X 2 =12... Tremolo Rate (rt) and Reverb Time (ti)
can’t go over 9.9 am I missing something Pat???
Tap twice as fast! You can’t go over 9.9 on the others. Don’t lower the river, when you
can raise the bridge. It's all relative, cousin! ;^)
You can use the ultra clean Tweed 1 type and make it “dirty” by using the compressor on
3 or 4. I have been quite impressed with the high compression (4) clean tone StratQuebec got
on his Tweed 1 patch, “When a Blind Man Cries.” Not only does he get away with the
maximum compression but he does it with maximum Gain, which surprised me. StratQuebec
suggested Volume reduction, but I have usually found it helps to reduce Gain slightly with
increases in Compression, from 1-4, similar to the way you have to decrease Gain with
increases in the amplifier settings, like going from Tweed 1 to 2 to 3, for example. But like I
said, I’m not sure what exactly you are referring to.
I just got a ToneBone Classic and it sounds great thru the CD. Not that the tones weren’t
great before, but the ToneBone adds even more diversity to the sound.
THE IDIOT'S GUIDE TO THE ABC's of COUNTRY MUSIC MADE SIMPLE FOR DUMMIES (LIKE ME)
WHO PLAY ALONG:
1) Select Amp Type Blackface 1, Comp 1 and Bridge Pickup (You can start at Preset # 03,
07, or 19, too and do this, just add Comp 1);
2) Select Effects: Reverb (Your choice), Tremolo 1, Delay 1 with all 3 Level Knobs at 3.0;
3) Tap out the 4-Beat (1-2-3-4, 1-2-3-4) to set the Delay Time (dt) with the Tap Button.
Now double the (dt) number for Tremolo Rate (rt) and Reverb Time (ti).
Repeat #3 for each song. That's all there is to it! Say, yeehaw! Fellers. Got to go slop the
hawgs.
Oh there’s a lot of virtuosity and good musicians in country music too, as in any styles. In
fact, when we speak of style, it’s like spaghetti sauce. Everybody, almost, likes spaghetti, but
not all the sauces!
To put it in a “Cyber-Deluxe spectrum,” I think, this amplifier is for any guitarist, no
matter what the style performed. With this amplifier, any guitarist -spaghetti- will find the
tone he likes, it’s sauce! Bon appétit!
Usually I use the guitar volume to roll from clean to overdrive but if I need a more Heavy
distortion then I set a “heavy” patch and use the foot switch. But if you want to use your
pedals it's no problem. Just take care to set the trim according to get the good input level.
One of my favorite “features” of the Mod/Fx that isn’t immediately apparent is to use
the Vibratone, Chorus, Flange, Phaser, and Touch Wah with minimum effects and then roll
the Level Knob up or down. It tends to take the set tones into and out of a chamber. I
generally like the effects best at 2.0 - 4.0. To put each at minimum effect reduce the rate to
1.0 (minimum) by using the edit button. With phaser take the depth and feedback off, too.
This is very similar to your note. I don't know if it acts as an EQ but it does seem to work that
way for each. That is why so many of my settings have Vibratone 1 or Chorus 1 with rate = 1.0
but the knob is rolled up. Love it. I like to make wet effects with the very noticeably
minimum amount about 2.0 on the level knob.
I too think studying each effect possible values helps to understand better how the tone
is affected by each parameter. Each time I take a look at the chart for a particular effect, I
always do it in the following order: I begin by reading the description of the parameters, then
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 18
I read the description of the effect itself and finally I look at the values and re-read the
description. I then get a good understanding of the effect “flavor” and what parameter is the
most important (though they are all...).
To get rid of this phenomenon, I often use the compressor when I set my overdriven
tones. That way, even when I lower the guitar volume knob, I get a good input level and the
overdrive sounds better.
The Cyber-Deluxe is easy to use with clean tones but when the time to deal with
overdrive and distortion comes, you need to tweak more to find the tone you like. As far as I
am concerned, I always begin my tests using the pre-distortion circuit, putting volume on max
(10 on the knob, 9.9 on the display) and after I set the post-distortion circuit, the GAIN,
between 2 and 4, maximum 5. Then I come back lowering the volume if needed.
Gigging tricks
The sound really breaths at stage volume, master set to 4 or above. I don’t understand
some criticisms about Cyber-Deluxe not cutting enough. At very low volume, it is thinner but
still better than a tube amplifier.
For gigs, I set my four button foot switch:
#1: preset Jazz (#13) - Rhythm
#2: preset boogie (#9) - Rhythm
#3: Clapton - as mostly defined by “StatPat” - Lead volume up. I may still fiddle with this
one to give it a bit more presence and guts. I’ll probably use my expression peddle to add
more drive, as needed, once I figure out how to do that.
#4: preset drop D (#14) - sounds good cranked! -- go crazy, type lead, with lots of sustain.
So you have a sound you like, say it’s an existing preset, just save it to say position 33 as
well as position 34. Set the footswitch buttons to those two presets. Adjust gain and volume
on the second one to have the desired boost/overdrive.
Try to have your footswitch selections on user settings (32-64) so you can have an even
volume as desired. This way you can also fine tune the factory presets to suit.
This is a great suggestion and it works for me if you can get the volumes about right when
switching and if you only need 4 settings (the basic footswitch).
Here’s a simpler way without tying up your footswitches. Set your overdrive (dirty)
setting for 10 wide-open on your guitar, then use your volume knob on the guitar to roll off
the overdrive and play clean when its about 5 on the guitar. You can use clean for rhythm, for
example, and then use dirty for lead. It takes no longer to roll the volume knob with your
pinky than it does to tromp a footswitch. It can all be done while on 1 of the footswitches,
too, so you’re other settings are ready for other specialty numbers you may play. If they are
all done in like-fashion, you will get 8 quick, ready-to-use settings out of 4 buttons,
essentially.
Use the balanced line outs on the back of the amplifier to feed the PA system. Use a TRS,
1/4 inch stereo, to XLR patch cord. Now, you have a direct line and a personal monitor. If you
need to use a ground lift, buy a second TRS to XLR. Open up one of the plugs and disconnect
the ground lead. Be sure to mark the two cables so you won’t be confused later.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 19
Recording Tricks
Headphone output: I prefer use the stereo line out feature. Once in a console or a mixer I
plug the headphones through the mixer. Great! If you don’t have a mixer, run a line from the
head phones out on the back of the amplifier to the mic in on your sound card. You can also
go to the line in on the sound card. If you want to use the line outs on the amplifier, use both
to two in channels. This way you can capture the stereo effects.
Sysex:
For those who wonder, a Sysex file is a computer file (generally with the .syx extension)
containing a “System Exclusive MIDI Message.” This MIDI messages consists of DATA BYTES are
in fact the values of the parameters settings, for a particular preset in a HEXADECIMAL
format. This is then called a patch. In Hex notation the number goes from 0 to 15 where all
number GREATER than 9 (10-11-12-13-14-15)are represented by a letter (A-B-C-D-E-F). The
hexadecimal numbers are always group by two (two hex digit= 1 byte) that is, 0 in decimal =
00 hex, 5 in decimal = 05, 10 = 0A, 15 = 0F. 0 in decimal (00 hex) is the minimum value and
255 in decimal (FF hex) is the maximum value. Nothing complicated, just weird for the
newbie!
It is called “exclusive” because it is specific to a proprietary MIDI device, which in this
case is the Fender Cyber-Deluxe. That means only the Cyber-Deluxe “understand” the
message. The Cyber-Twin or the Cyber-Champ or any other amplifier equipped with MIDI will
not. Sending to them a Cyber-Deluxe Sysex message could generate at best just NOTHING, a
wrong behavior, an ERROR code, or in the worse case, a crash of the System. Just like a
computer, we must then shut down and re-open (restart) the amplifier, this is called a cold
boot in computer science language.
There is absolutely no need to understand what a Sysex MIDI message is when using your
Cyber-deluxe! But now you won’t say “What the hell is that?” when you'll see that word.
Sysex utility: Using the Cyber-Deluxe you can transfer to a computer “upload” and later
back to the Cyber-Deluxe “download,” one preset at a time, all presets, or the MIDI
configuration of your Cyber-Deluxe Continuous controller settings etc.
In that way you don't have to write by hand on a sheet the values of each parameters for
a particular preset to save a patch. All you have to do is send “dump” the values of each
parameters, “the Sysex DATA BYTES” to a computer and save it as, e.g., MyCleanTweed.syx.
And later if you want to retrieve that preset, all you have to do is to send back the
MyCleanTweed.syx to the Cyber-Deluxe.
With the Cyber-Deluxe the operation to send one preset to a computer is called DP -
Dump preset. There is also DU - Dump utilities, the MIDI configuration of the Cyber-Deluxe,
and finally, DA - Dump all presets.
To perform these upload/download operations, all you need is a computer with a sound
card, software, MIDIOX is free and a Cyber-Deluxe! The joystick part of the soundcard is
used!! Get a MIDI to soundcard at a music store. Computer stores often don't even know what
a soundcard midi cable is! You can find them on eBay too.
To make a midi connection, use a sound card midi cable. Put the joystick male connector
of the midi cable in the joystick female jack of the sound card. Put the "IN" male connector of
the midi cable in the "OUT" female jack of the CD. Put the "OUT" male connector of the midi
cable in the "IN" female jack of the CD. Yes, they don’t match up like on a tape player.
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 20
Other tips
Many are saying the Princeton 65 is a good match for the amplifier and it is mentioned in
the Fender literature, but I tried hooking up my little practice amplifier, a Crate MX15R ($70).
I took a spare cable and ran it out the back of my amplifier with its settings all at 5 and the
Master at 1.0, patched it into the input where the guitar goes normally and set all its settings
at 5, turned on the Cyber-Deluxe, then the Crate, and gently rolled the Master up on the
Cyber-Deluxe. Then I balanced the two with the knurled knob on the back and, oila, stereo!
Very nice for couch players. Try it. I don't think I’ll run out and get a Princeton for the
volumes I play at, maybe that will save some $ for other couch-players, too.
I never heard someone praise the Cyber-Deluxe built-in tuner! I rather read comments
like, “too sensitive, not accurate,” to be polite!
To me it is not so bad, at least, at home. I put the switch on the middle position and drop
the guitar vol knob to about 5 or 6. That's the way I found it works the best to me and I think I
ever read somewhere that's the way Fender recommends to use it. But I must admit, “I would
not” rely on it at a gig where there would be to much noise to be able to finish the tuning by
ear.
I checked the Cyber-Deluxe’s tuner against my Korg. It is accurate, just a little finicky. I
normally check a string three or four times. I figure if the tuner will give me the same answer
3 times, it should be right. I don’t have any problem using it on stage, just give it a couple
tries to gather it’s wits. Less than full volume on the guitar does help. Try to keep your
picking had away from any harmonic nodes and mute the other five strings. These two
precautions do a lot to tame the sensitivity of the tuner.
Long story short, most of the time I use the tuner as a Stand-by switch and it works great!
Just hit the tuner button on the Cyber (it puts the amplifier in silent mode) while you change
presets with the Jog Dial. Once you get to your new preset, turn the tuner off again. That’s
what I do as I wait for the Cyber Fool Controller to become available.
Amplifier Modifications
I have a pair of 14" tilt legs and the mounting hardware. The problem is; the bolt of the
leg, which goes through the cabinet, has to be located at the same level as the chassis. I
asked to a local amplifier dealer and he gave me the idea to: remove the chassis, slightly
route the inside of the cabinet to allow the bolt to be flush, mount the legs, then replace the
chassis in the cabinet. Somewhat difficult, but I really want to install my legs! Problems with
the guarantee as well.... Maybe I'd rather wait for the end of warranty.
Well, loading the Century in the Cyber-Deluxe was a piece of cake. All of 5 min. or so.
Nice to see Fender used a machine thread instead of a wood screw like some others do... The
increase in volume is the first thing I noticed. As far as tone, the only way I can describe it is
like I added a bright switch to the amplifier. The high end head room is much greater and still
retains all the bottom you need. These speakers work real well for the scooped mid- high gain
distortion sound. With a little tweaking the Cyber-Deluxe preset 00 sounds as good as my
JCM900. Very Van Halen like. The surprise, my tone was getting real close to Duane Eddy's
clean sound at preset 19 and some tweaks. I moved the G12T-100 over to my Carvin 100 watt
combo I now use as stereo right with the Cyber-Deluxe. Hey, after all, we paid for stereo FX! I
replaced the EV12L. A good speaker(200 watts) but about 30 pounds too. The Cyber-Deluxe
C y b e r - D e l u x e T i p s G u i d e
Page 21
now weighs in at about 40 lbs. Almost 2 watts per pound! I like that ratio. After my son's
wedding this weekend, I will try to add some sound clips to check out.
First preset 21 uses Blackface-3, this circuit is already very over driven. Also the master is
at 4.2, the volume on 7.3 and even compression on 1. Wow! it’s a lot.
Putting a pedal in front of this setting maybe is not a good idea!
Would you put pedal in front a, let say, a Hot Rod on the drive, or more drive, channel?
Or a pedal in front of the clean channel cranked all the way up?
Maybe that's why your SD-1 don’t works well with preset 21. Forget the preset and jump
in manual mode! How is your SD-1 doing with a clean circuitry like tweed-1 and Blackface-1?
Try tweed-1/no-reverb/no-F/X/No-delay. Here you can put the gain and volume on 10
without generating any pre amp or power amp overdrive.
If you found a something that sounds good to you that way, now you know why! Setup the
Cyber-Deluxe and your pedal and gig volume too.
Other Resources
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/cyberamps/
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/CyberTwinPatchesAndDiscussion/
http://mysite.verizon.net/vze8iyzw/index.html/
http://stratquebec.com/cakewalk.htm/